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I live just outside of Lexington, KY where Dustin has the dirt tank.
I actually visited his home and bought some plants and he introduced me to the process. I have since set up a 40 gal. dirt tank that I use to grow plants for my 220 gal. discus tank. This works great.

Let me say that Dustin's personal tanks look like professional aquarium show tanks. I had never seen a planted tank in person that looked so nice.

Its funny you have posted this thread cos I started my own dirt tank last week. 7gal un heated tank with 4 guppies. I used garden soil instead cos I heard potting soil has bad stuff in it. Anyway, diference in mine is I didn't wet the soil first. I put it in dry and then added the gravel on top. As expected, when filling the whole bed sank some. But seems to be working as some swords are growing new leafs.

Update! It's been a while and I'm kind of sad to be honest. I'll just post the pictures and see if yall can figure out while I'm disappointed.

The first 2 pictures are female bettas I let my sister choose (sorry on coloration on first one). I realize that 5g is kind of small for 2 females bettas but I hope to keep levels down by adding my 10g filter to this 5g once my new 20g has taken hold and all the plants grow so the females don't have to see each other constantly.

Find out why I'm disappointed.

Ok I'll tell you guys because seeing this picture made me mad again! The Swords decided it would be a great time to melt on me and since their roots aren't long enough to reach the dirt yet they are suffering. I'm dosing with liquid ferts and I may throw in some DIY Co2, not too sure yet. Since this picture I have taken my Cryptcoryne Undulata out of the pot and it did the infamous "Crypt melt" which disappointed me but new leaves are already showing up.

Dont give up just yet. Most leaves will die off, it's only naturally since it's been moved from one enviroment to another. All it takes is for a single root to reach the dirt and for a single leaf to survive, and it will fight back with pride. Just trim off the damaged leaves since all they do is waste the plant's energy